The Games Gods Play

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. The Games Gods Play depicts Olympus as a battleground for political schemes, rivalries, divisive factions, and a race for greater power. Do you think this depiction reflects real-world struggles for leadership and control?

2. As an office clerk for the Order of Thieves, Lyra is ill-prepared for the Crucible’s deadly competition. Have you ever been in a situation where you were forced to take on a challenging task you didn’t expect? How did you handle it?

3. Consider how Owen often plays with public perception and how Lyra often finds herself rectifying her ideas about Hades and other immortals. How do you interact with public reputations? Have you ever found yourself in a position where you’ve had to modify your opinion of someone after knowing them personally?

4. The narrative explores the concept of fate versus the idea of choice in its characters. Do you believe in destiny, or do you believe people forge their own paths? Has the novel reflected or challenged your beliefs?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. Lyra is forced into a hero’s journey she never asked for, much like many other heroines in other fantasy novel series. How does her journey compare to protagonists in books like A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas and Rachel Gillig’s One Dark Window?

2. The novel presents the gods as flawed, self-involved, and highly disconnected beings. Yet from a public perspective, they present themselves as benevolent beings, inclusive of humans in their dealings through the Crucible. What does this suggest about the way we view power, leadership, and authority figures in our own society?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. Consider how the book plays with traditional depictions of Hades and Persephone by introducing Lyra as a potential challenger to their divine romance. What do you think this reinterpretation adds to the mythology?

2. Consider the different settings—San Francisco, Olympus, Fingal’s Cave, and so on—included within the narrative. What role do locations play in shaping the novel’s tone and atmosphere? What effect does using a modern setting have on the overall plot?

3. Examine the inclusion of other mythologies within the narrative landscape. What effect does having a multiplicity of gods from different sources interacting create in the book? What are the possible implications of such an interaction?

4. The book makes use of Hades’ classical depiction of a harsh, cruel, self-involved god of death. How does Owen adapt this depiction in her narrative, and how does this depiction come to play in the development of his relationship with Lyra?